William Henry Bartlett (26 March 1809 – 13 September 1854) was a British artist, best known for his numerous drawings rendered into steel

engraving Engraving is the practice of incising a design on a hard, usually flat surface by cutting grooves into it with a Burin (engraving), burin. The result may be a decorated object in itself, as when silver, gold, steel, or Glass engraving, glass ar ...

Biography

Bartlett was born in

Kentish Town Kentish Town is an area of northwest London, England, in the London Borough of Camden, immediately north of Camden Town, close to Hampstead Heath. Kentish Town likely derives its name from Ken-ditch or Caen-ditch, meaning the "bed of a waterw ...

, London, England on 26 March 1809. He was apprenticed to John Britton (1771–1857), and became one of the foremost illustrators of topography of his generation. He travelled throughout Britain, and in the mid and late 1840s he travelled extensively in the

Balkans The Balkans ( , ), corresponding partially with the Balkan Peninsula, is a geographical area in southeastern Europe with various geographical and historical definitions. The region takes its name from the Balkan Mountains that stretch throug ...

and the Middle East. He made four visits to North America between 1836 and 1852. In 1835, Bartlett first visited the United States to draw the buildings, towns and scenery of the northeastern states. The finely detailed steel engravings Bartlett produced were published uncolored with a text by

Nathaniel Parker Willis Nathaniel Parker Willis (January 20, 1806 – January 20, 1867), also known as N. P. Willis,Baker, 3 was an American writer, poet and editor who worked with several notable American writers including Edgar Allan Poe and Henry Wadsworth Longfello ...

as ''American Scenery; or Land, Lake, and River: Illustrations of Transatlantic Nature''. ''American Scenery'' was published by George Virtue in London in 30 monthly installments from 1837 to 1839. Bound editions of the work were published from 1840 onward. The same publisher produced ''The Poems, Letters and Land of Robert Burns'' with engravings by Bartlett in 1838. In that same year Bartlett was in the Canadas producing sketches for Willis' ''Canadian Scenery Illustrated'', published in 1842. Following a trip to the Middle East, he published ''Walks About the City and Environs of Jerusalem'' in 1840. Bartlett made sepia

wash Wash or the Wash may refer to: Industry and sanitation * WASH or WaSH, "water, sanitation and hygiene", three related public health issues * Wash (distilling), the liquid produced by the fermentation step in the production of distilled beverages ...

drawings the exact size to be engraved. His engraved views were widely copied by artists, but no signed oil painting by his hand is known. Engravings based on Bartlett's views were later used in his posthumous ''History of the United States of North America'', continued by Bernard Bolingbroke Woodward and published around 1856. Bartlett's primary concern was to render "lively impressions of actual sights", as he wrote in the preface to ''The Nile Boat'' (London, 1849). Many views contain some ruin or element of the past including many scenes of churches, abbeys, cathedrals and castles, and Nathaniel Parker Willis described Bartlett's talent thus: "Bartlett could select his point of view so as to bring prominently into his sketch the castle or the cathedral, which history or antiquity had allowed". Bartlett returning from his last trip to the

Near East The Near East () is a transcontinental region around the Eastern Mediterranean encompassing the historical Fertile Crescent, the Levant, Anatolia, Egypt, Mesopotamia, and coastal areas of the Arabian Peninsula. The term was invented in the 20th ...

suddenly took ill and died of fever on board the French steamer ''Egyptus'' off the coast of

Malta Malta, officially the Republic of Malta, is an island country in Southern Europe located in the Mediterranean Sea, between Sicily and North Africa. It consists of an archipelago south of Italy, east of Tunisia, and north of Libya. The two ...

on 13 September 1854. His widow Susanna lived for almost 50 years after his death, and died in London on 25 October 1902, aged 91.

Works

Image:Oxbow W H Bartlett 1835.jpg, View from

Mount Holyoke Mount Holyoke, a traprock mountain, elevation , is the westernmost peak of the Holyoke Range and part of the 100-mile (160 km) Metacomet Ridge. The mountain is located in the Connecticut River Valley of western Massachusetts, and is the n ...

(Massachusetts). The Oxbow, Connecticut River, 1835 Image:WHBartlettSouthEasternViewOfHudsonCityNY1837.jpg, City of Hudson, NY, 1837 Image:Citadelle Kingston.jpg, ''Citadel of Kingston''. Ink print. 1839–1842. Image:Eastport & Passamaquoddy Bay.jpg, '' Eastport and

Passamaquoddy Bay Passamaquoddy Bay () is an inlet of the Bay of Fundy, between the U.S. state of Maine and the Canadian province of New Brunswick, at the mouth of the St. Croix River. Most of the bay lies within Canada, with its western shore bounded by Was ...

'', 1839 Image:AmericanScenery Willis.jpg, ''American Scenery'' by N. P. Willis, 1840 Image:Interior of the House of a Christian Family in Jerusalem.jpg, Interior of the house of a

Christian A Christian () is a person who follows or adheres to Christianity, a Monotheism, monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus in Christianity, Jesus Christ. Christians form the largest religious community in the wo ...

family in

Jerusalem Jerusalem is a city in the Southern Levant, on a plateau in the Judaean Mountains between the Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean and the Dead Sea. It is one of the List of oldest continuously inhabited cities, oldest cities in the world, and ...

, ca 1850 Image:Fair_at_Khan_al-Tujjar.jpg, Fair at Khan al-Tujjar, ca 1850 File:Tomb of the Kings.jpg, Tombs of the Kings (Jerusalem) File:Meeting of the waters ovoca ireland wh bartlett scenery antiquities of ireland vol2.jpg, Engraving by J.C. Bentley of a drawing by W.H. Bartlett 'The Meeting of the Waters. (Vale of Ovoca), ''Meeting of the Waters'', River Avoca, Avoca River, Ireland

References

Bibliography

*Janice Tyrwhitt and Henry C. Campbell, ''Bartlett’s Canada: A Pre-Confederation Journey'' (McClelland and Stewart Limited: Toronto, 1968).

External links

Bartlett Prints in the collection of the Niagara Falls Public Library (Ont.)

a finding aid to a

New York State Library The New York State Library is a research library in Albany, New York, United States. It was established in 1818 to serve the state government of New York and is part of the New York State Education Department. The library is one of the large ...

collection of copies of some of Bartlett's prints.
Bartlett, W. H. in CAPITAL COLLECTIONS

Biography at ''the Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online''
* * * * Paintings for Fisher's Drawing Room Scrap Books, with poetical illustrations by

Letitia Elizabeth Landon Letitia Elizabeth Landon (14 August 1802 – 15 October 1838) was an English poet and novelist, better known by her initials L.E.L. Landon's writings are emblematic of the transition from Romanticism to Victorian literature. Her first major b ...

. *:1832:, engraved by LePetit. *:1832:, engraved by Robert Brandard. *:1833:, engraved by J C Varrall. *:1837:, engraved by S Smith. *:1837:, engraved by J Redaway. See Francis Rawdon Chesney under The Euphrates Expedition. *:1838,, engraved by John Cousen. *:1838,, engraved by James Baylis Allen with ''The Cedars of Lebanon'' by L. E. L. *:1838,, engraved by William Joseph Taylor. *:1839,, engraved by W Floyd. *:1839,, engraved by J Tingle. *:1839,,engraved by J Redaway. *:1840,, engraved by J Redaway. * engraved by T. Dixon for Fisher's Drawing Room Scrap Book, 1832, with an article on blarney by

. {{DEFAULTSORT:Bartlett, William Henry 1809 births 1854 deaths 19th-century English engravers English landscape artists People from Kentish Town Holy Land travellers